A Quick Getaway to Puerto Princesa

My girlfriends and I planned a quick trip to Puerto Princesa in Palawan last August.  Despite the torrential rains in Manila, Palawan only had intermittent showers, so we were able to experience and enjoy roaming around and visiting their notable tourist spots. And we saw many of its famous mountains and mountain ranges.

We stayed at a family room in Aziza Paradise Hotel. This hotel is clean and convenient. And they have great breakfast food, including my favorite marinated danggit! 

We wanted to get immersed in the local culture for three days, so we opted for local food for our first lunch.  We were brought to Ka Inato. We enjoyed their seafood dishes, especially the Panginas Anghang (sisig made of shell meat), the Palawan Inihaw na Isda (very fresh parrot fish with okra, talong, and kamote tops), and the Bulalong Yamang Dagat (seafood in thick gabi soup with malunggay and other vegetables).

 

Then I noticed these bags of water with a coin inside that hung near the ceiling all around the restaurant. I could not resist asking what they were for. Guess what? They are to ward off flies! The idea is that flies will get scared when they go towards the bags of water.  What they see will be their own magnified reflection or the flash of light from the metal coin within and be frightened off!

Dinner was at the famous Kalui Restaurant.  We took a tricycle (roomy tricycles are numerous around the city) to get to the place.  The place has a warm, local, homey feel.

Their menu is very simple, comprising of mostly seafood.  We hear that reservations are required as their kitchen never stocks up.  They buy enough for what they need for the day as they don't freeze the day's catch. Everything is served fresh; you will notice it. It was a delicious and satisfying dinner.

We were also able to go thru the world-famous subterranean river. We saw the caves, the bats and the limestone structures. Along the way, we saw monkeys on the trees.

This is the cave entrance, where you enter, riding small boats with no more than 8 passengers and one boat man / tour guide. It's very dark inside the caves.  It's an experience too enthralling for pictures to describe.  The limestone structures formed slowly thru the passage of time are truly sights to behold.

After the underground river tour, we had a local lunch by the beach.  And it featured the tamilok. Tamilok is actually a shipworm, a bivalve mollusk that burrows into the woods of mangrove. It is my very first time to try this native Palawan delicacy. It is eaten raw, dipped into spiced vinegar, like a kinilaw.  It's taste is very similar to raw oysters. Not bad at all! 

And since we are talking about "firsts", I had the chance to hold on to a live python in the Palawan Butterfly Eco-Garden and Tribal Village on this trip too! 

Another not-to-miss attraction is firefly watching in Iwahig. You take a small banca and go around the river among the mangroves in the dark of the night.  It is serenely beautiful!

I end this blog with another must-try food place. Go to Rene's Saigon.  It is located very near the airport. Mang Rene is always there to give recommendations. The noodles soup and the spring rolls are very good and affordable to boot.  And don't miss their homemade french bread.

read more "A Quick Getaway to Puerto Princesa"

Juice Fast by JUJU Cleanse

I wanted to give my digestive tract a rest, after my recent "food trip". I felt I needed to do a clean-up and a restart. So I decided to do a juice fast by JUJU cleanse.  Lately, I've been having their salads and drinks (surprisingly very palatable) at The Podium branch for some doses of healthy food.

JUJU cleanse involves fresh, raw, cold-pressed juices.  I read up about it, and found out that cold-pressed meant subjecting raw fruits and vegetables to high pressure, but no heat, to produce what is called HPP-- high pressure pasteurized. Compared to juice derived from centrifugal extractors which produce more heat and oxidation, cold-pressed juice preserves much of the fruit and vegetable enzymes and vitamins as it is exposed to a minimum of heat and air.  

The juices are pure liquid, no meat and no fiber.  My digestive system can take it easy for a day and just absorb nutrients. I will be running on mostly minerals and carbohydrates. Zero fats. And very little protein, which I was a bit apprehensive about.  

As it is my first try, their website suggests I have their introductory level one cleanse. And since I am a busy working mother with long days, I settled for a one-day cleanse duration to make sure I can stick to it. 

I had 500ml of juice every 2.5 hours, from 7:30am to 8:00 pm-- six rounds of juice drinks. I took the juices slowly on their scheduled time.   In between, I took in water and some hot mint tea.  I never felt hungry.  I didn't lose energy to work.  I wasn't tempted to eat other food. No headaches, no irritability.

What I endured though was feeling cold.  More specifically, I couldn't stand the air-conditioned environment at work.  This feeling started near noon time and it got worse towards the afternoon. What helped was when I walked around in the office, and when I went out for a brisk walk during lunch time.  But in the afternoon the "chills" came back.  

Since I was consuming less calories, I presume my body was not burning as much fuel as before to keep me warm.  Fasting slows down our metabolic rate, thus the difficulty to bear cold temperature. Less energy, less body heat. But it was tolerable, and was much easier when I stayed out of air-conditioned rooms for the rest of the evening.

It was a good rest of sorts.  The one-day pause made me eat lighter in the days afterwards. I just wasn't as hungry like before. Which must be good and healthy for me.

I'm having another mini-break next week. I will try the level two JUJU cleanse.

I will just remember to dress more warmly, and bring layers I can add.

read more "Juice Fast by JUJU Cleanse"

All-Filipino Grocery Finds

I do the family grocery-run every other weekend. I enjoy this chore. It's a concrete way I provide for my family. And it's a distraction and a stress-reliever, mindlessly roaming around rows and rows of goods and products we consume in our everyday life. 

Last week, I found these great new condiments in SM Hypermart Pasig. They're great finds as no one enjoys eating with dipping sauces more than us Filipinos!

Mama Sita's (msita.com) has sauces and mixes that have been staples of Filipino cooking for a long time. It's good to see they also produce these premium condiments now. The Coconut Nectar Vinegar is made from organic coconut sap or tuba, and aged for a year. The Anghang-Sarap Spiced Tuba Vinegar has a zest just the way we Pinoys like it, with all the yummy garlic, onions and chili in it. 

Their website is worth a visit, especially for those who enjoy cooking and eating. It has recipes to most of our all-time Filipino favorites like sinigang, adobo, paksiw, etc. When I worked abroad for a few years, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how much I would miss these kinds of cooking. 

I also found these Datu Puti Premium Selections products. 

Nutriasia (nutriasia.com) produces some of our favorite ketchup brands and the Mang Tomas Sarsa. Their Datu Puti Premium Selections line is very new, I can't even find them on their website. They have Natural Cane Vinegar and Brewed Soy Sauce which come in nice tall bottles. I also found their ToyoChili a great sawsawan (dipping sauce). 

Lorenzana Food Corporation (lorenzana.com.ph) is the manufacturer of my all-time favorite condiment- Lorins Patis (fish sauce). So I was so excited to find their Lorins Premium Extra Virgin Anchovy Extract. 

I hope they produce these in smaller bottles soon, so I can bring one to leave in our office pantry to enjoy with my packed lunches and share with my office mates. It's a very tasty dipping sauce!

Visit their website for great recipes using our favorites-- Patis and Bagoong!

read more "All-Filipino Grocery Finds"